Encore: From 'Black-ish,' Jenifer Lewis: 'The Mother of Black Hollywood'

It's Been a Minute

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News Commentary, Society & Culture, News, Spirituality, Religion & Spirituality

4.6 • 8.8K Ratings

🗓️ 1 January 2019

⏱️ 34 minutes

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Summary

It's Tuesday: In her memoir, "The Mother of Black Hollywood," Jenifer Lewis chronicles a career that has spanned decades, from Broadway to the hit ABC show Black-ish. Along the way, she played fictional moms to Tupac Shakur, Taraji P. Henson, and Whitney Houston. Jenifer talks to Sam about her long career, struggling with addiction and bipolar disorder, growing up in Missouri, and lying her way into the DNC in 2008. Originally released in November of 2017. Email the show at [email protected] or tweet @NPRItsBeenAMin with your feedback.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey y'all, I'm Sam Sanders from NPR.
0:07.9	It's been a minute.
0:09.4	Happy new year to you.
0:10.7	I hope you are enjoying some collid greens and black eyed peas.
0:14.5	We took some time off the show this week for the holidays.
0:17.4	So what we have for you today is a great episode to hear or re-here.
0:22.3	It's a chat from 2017 with Jennifer Lewis.
0:26.7	You might know Jennifer Lewis from Blackish.
0:28.7	She plays a grandmother Ruby Johnson on that show.
0:31.8	But this role is just the latest in her long, amazing career that has spanned decades
0:36.9	on TV and in movies and on Broadway.
0:39.7	We spoke about Jennifer Lewis's memoir.
0:42.2	It's called The Mother of Black Hollywood.
0:44.6	And it's called that because Jennifer has played the mother of basically every black actor
0:48.6	in the biz.
0:50.4	When Tupac was in poetic justice, Jennifer Lewis played his character's mom.
0:55.0	I got to be doing this post office.
0:57.3	Don't be cussed around me, boy.
0:59.2	Who you think I am?
1:00.2	One of your friends?
1:01.2	Be glad you got it on this job.
1:03.0	When Whitney Houston was in the preacher's wife, she played her character's mom.
	...

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